Useless facts

[YODA]

Stuff you really do not need to know...

In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes...when you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. That's where the phrase, "good night, sleep tight" came from.


The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."


The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1.

If Barbie were life size her measurements would be 39-23-33

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.


The combination "ough" can be pronounced in ten different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman swam through the lough at Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."

Horses can't throw up

[big e]

i got some facts on farts if any 1 wants them

very interesting (http://www.heptune.com/farts.html)

[fluffydoc]

Giraffes are the only mammal without a recurrent laryngeal nerve. Is that useless and obscure enough?

[Sean O]

You know a pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes? (I want to be a pig in my next life :D)

[Shortfuse]

how did someone find that pig thing out???

[Cougar_v203]

*cough*First-hand*cough* :D

[Cain]

In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes...when you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. That's where the phrase, "good night, sleep tight" came from.

These kinda beds are stil used in the villages in here :D

|Cain|

[Paratus]

Your eyes always close while sneezing

EDIT: Another sneeze tidbit, if you want to stop yourself from sneezing, block or close your nostrils

[YODA]

Your eyes always close while sneezing

EDIT: Another sneeze tidbit, if you want to stop yourself from sneezing, block or close your nostrils

Doesn't work: I tried that once and shot next door's cat with my hearing aid :D

[Infesticon #1]

biting on the inside (just a nibble, not a bite, not enough to break the skin basically) of your top lip often prevents a sneeze.

Also, tickling the roof of your mouth at the back past where your mouth is hard, where it goes soft often makes you want to sneeze

[Koryo]

The heart of a blue whale is the size of a car and its main arteries a large enough for a grown man to swim through.

[Chris.B]

Umm, my friend said that when you feel like sneezing but can't you should look at the sun and you'll sneeze. Dose it actually work I don't know...you can try it for me though.

[YounGrasshopper]

Umm, my friend said that when you feel like sneezing but can't you should look at the sun and you'll sneeze. Dose it actually work I don't know...you can try it for me though.


Maybe because you are distracted by the burning of your retinas??? Lol i dont know

[Poop-Loops]

I think it's because you squint your eyes in a way that helps release the sneeze. Works for me most of the time.

Biting on the tip of your tongue makes your mouth water. Try it next time you have a really dry mouth. Very useful when making presentations.

PL

[Zamfoo]

The nostil closing thingy works but supposedly it can paralyze your face if you do it right.

[pug32]

Umm, my friend said that when you feel like sneezing but can't you should look at the sun and you'll sneeze. Dose it actually work I don't know...you can try it for me though.

has always worked for me :D

get some weird looks when you tell people

[Shaolin Dragon]

In the 16th century, most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children -- last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it-hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater."

Houses had thatched roofs -- thick straw -- piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom, where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, Hence the saying, "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway -- hence, a "thresh hold."

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot.They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while-hence the rhyme, "peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

Sometimes, they could obtain pork. This would make them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes. So, for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Most people did not have pewter plates, but did have trenchers. They are a piece of wood, with the middle scooped out, to form a bowl. However, trenchers were often made from stale bread, which was so old and so hard, they could be used for quite some time. These trenchers were never washed and a lot of times worms and mold got into the wood and old bread. And after eating off these wormy, moldy, trenchers, people would get "trench mouth."

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of The loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, which was called the "upper crust."

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up--hence the custom of holding a "wake!"

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground, and tie it to a bell. Then someone would sit in the graveyard, all night long (on the "graveyard shift") and listen for the bell. Thus, the expression, he or she was "saved by the bell" or considered a "dead ringer."

[Freeform]

Spiders webs have a tensile strength stronger than that of steel.

Elephants are the only land mammals that can't jump.

Whilst at full sprint a horse always has one hoof on the ground.

[Cain]

Whilst at full sprint a horse always has one hoof on the ground.

I can understand off the ground.......but.........on the ground? :confused:

|Cain|

[Shaolin Dragon]

Spiders webs have a tensile strength stronger than that of steel.



I remember reading in a science magazine about how there were plans afoot to attempt to splice spider DNA and sheep DNA to create a type of sheep which could grow wool which had a high tensile strength similar to spider's silk. The applications of this would of course be incredible - lightweight ropes as strong as cables, lightweight bodyarmour which could effectively be knitted into a jumper and be as strong as kevlar but lighter, building materials - just think of the possibilities.

Of course, the plan failed when they realised they didn't have anything strong enough to shear the sheep.

[Kwajman]

Hey Pug, its not necessarily the sun you have to look at. Any bright light will do for a certain percentage of people. Its called the photic sneeze reflex. It has to do with the bright light stimulating the nerves in the nose resulting in a sneeze. About 25% of people can do this, myself and my middle son included!!

[Andy Gibney]

If you drop a tarantula from a two foot drop it will explode when it hits the ground.

You are 138 times more likely to be killed on the way to the airport than in the plane.

Who named the airport building 'terminal'. Didn't they think of the consequences?

14% of all the world's air crashes have happened in China. Of these 70% were on China Airlines. Virgin and Quantas have 100% safety records. British Airways haven't had a crash for over 30 years.

The Concorde crash happened because it didn't have Kevlar reinforced wings like all other planes. It was done to reduce the weight and increase speed.

The act of the salute came from Knights of old raising their visor to show that they were friendly i.e. not going to fight.

You raise your right hand in court because you used to be branded on your right hand if convicted of a previous crime. No brand, no previous convictions.

Andy

[Roual]

Elephants are the only land mammals that can't jump.


Does this occur to anyone else as a good thing?


You know a pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes? (I want to be a pig in my next life)


Dolphins and humans are the only animals who have sex for fun (what about the pig!?)

[stumblinthrulif]

I remember reading in a science magazine about how there were plans afoot to attempt to splice spider DNA and sheep DNA to create a type of sheep which could grow wool which had a high tensile strength similar to spider's silk. The applications of this would of course be incredible - lightweight ropes as strong as cables, lightweight bodyarmour which could effectively be knitted into a jumper and be as strong as kevlar but lighter, building materials - just think of the possibilities.

Of course, the plan failed when they realised they didn't have anything strong enough to shear the sheep.

Forgive me for bring a serious note to the joke thread, but it was in fact -

1. A goat
2. Milk from which they obtained the silk
3. Relatively succesful

Sorry, I'll get my coat.

[chopperfan666]

bill gates is worth more than vietnam...

...and 226 times more per ounce than gold.

[Svarog]

Dolphins and humans are the only animals who have sex for fun (what about the pig!?)

You forgot the chimpanzees.

[CKava]

Isn't the pig thing just an urban myth?

Anyway here's something that is definitely not an urban myth... an anteater is the only mammal that doesen't have REM when sleeping! Anteaters just aren't dreamers! Oh yeah and only one side of a Dolphins brain goes to sleep so it can still swim while sleeping.

[Roual]

Here's something a friend sent me about 2 years ago, the comments aren't mine or his, but they're still quite funny, and the rest is just useless facts...

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
(Hardly seems worth it.)
If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.
(Now that’s more like it!)
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
(O.M.G.!)
A pig’s orgasm lasts 30 minutes.
(In my next life, I want to be a pig.)
A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death.
(Creepy.)
(I’m still not over the pig.)
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
(Do not try this at home...... maybe at work.)
The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male’s head off. (“Honey, I’m home. What the....?!”)
The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It’s like a human jumping the length of a football field.
(30 minutes... lucky pig... can you imagine??)
The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds.
(What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?)
Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
(I still want to be a pig in my next life...quality over quantity)
Butterflies taste with their feet.
(Something I always wanted to know.)
The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
(Hmmmmmm........)
Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.
(If you’re ambidextrous, do you split the difference?)
Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.
(OK, so that would be a good thing....)
A cat’s urine glows under a black light.
(I wonder who was paid to figure that out?)
An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
(I know some people like that.)
Starfish have no brains.
(I know some people like that too.)
Polar bears are left-handed.
(If they switch, they’ll live a lot longer.)
Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
(What about that pig??)

Hope it made you smile :)

[Still Waters]

Although they are mammals both the platypus and the echidna lay eggs.

The platypus is the most venomous mammal. (The males are but the females aren't.)

[Athleng Nordic]

My repository of senseless useless information is is about to over flow. :D

[Kinjiro Tsukasa]

Hope it made you smile :)
It did, the comments more so than the facts. :)

[Wolf]

Whilst at full sprint a horse always has one hoof on the ground.

Hate to contradict you freeform, but here is a pretty well known picture. It's shows the horse in various phases of a full gallop. I've circled where the horse doesn't have a hoof on the ground.